The Domain Industry News » March 3, 2010

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March 04, 2010
1:24
Peddle to the Metal: $165,000 Sale at Sedo Wins This Week's Domain Aftermarket Race
» ‎ Domain Name Journal

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A 165K sale at Sedo scored a runaway win in this week's aftermarket race. Four ccTLDs and a pair of .nets broke through the strong .com defensive line to join 14 .coms on our new Top 20 Chart. Two of those country codes crashed the top ten.

0:17
More Available Wireless Spectrum and Higher Market Entry Barriers
» ‎ CircleID

The tremendous demand for, and profitability of mobile telephony supports legislative and regulatory efforts to refarm spectrum with an eye toward reallocating as much as possible for wireless telephony and data services. But there is a downside that no one seems to acknowledge.

In light of past FCC practice and the behavior of incumbent wireless carriers I expect two anticompetitive outcomes to occur with the onset of any more spectrum. To maximize current contributions to the national treasury the FCC won't likely encumber any spectrum with open access requirements much less reserve some of the new spectrum for new bidders. Years ago the FCC removed a spectrum cap on any single carrier ostensibly to enable to improve service and accrue scale economies. We can expect the Big Four incumbent wireless carriers, now sharing over 90% market share, to acquire most of the spectrum.

In the 700 MHz spectrum auction (reallocation of UHF television spectrum) AT&T and Verizon spent $16 billion of the $19.6 billion collected by the U.S. government:

"According to an analysis by The Associated Press, the two telecom companies bid more than $16 billion, constituting the vast majority of the overall $19.6 billion that was bid in the FCC auction. With Verizon Wireless and AT&T dominating the auction so completely, hopes that the auction would allow for the creation of a new nationwide wireless service provider were dashed." W. David Gardner, Verizon, AT&T Big Winners in 700 MHz Auction, Information Week (March 20, 2008, Link); see also, Saul Hansell, Verizon and AT&T Win Big in Auction of Spectrum, The New York Times (March 21, 2008, Link); FCC, Auction 73, 700 MHz Band, Fact Sheet (Link)

Can anyone refute the conclusion that as incumbent carriers control more spectrum, the prospects for market entry and commensurately greater competition wanes? Regardless whether incumbent carriers warehouse the spectrum, or put it to immediate use, their opportunity to consolidate market control grows. Who would have the financial and management resources to take on the incumbents?

So 4 is the highest number of facilities-based carriers we can expect for many markets. If you think a regional carrier or pre-paid reseller can match the expanding service wingspan from the Big Four, think again.
Written by Rob Frieden, Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications and Law
Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Broadband, Policy & Regulation, White Space, Wireless

March 03, 2010
22:58
Coming March 15: File a UDRP for 500 EUR
» ‎ Domain Name Wire
Domain name arbitration company offers lower fees for “simple” cases.

Czech Arbitration Court, one of the providers of arbitration services under Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), is slashing fees to 500 EUR per case effective March 15 for certain cases.

The 500 EUR fee will apply only in cases where the respondent does not reply to the complaint, and in which “there is no need for Panellists to produce a detailed decision”. If the domain owner responds or the panelist deems it necessary to file a detailed decision, the complainant will be required to pay additional fees.

Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) had proposed a sort of “dual track” UDRP, which was unanimously opposed by the ICANN community. CAC disagreed with the community feedback and adjusted the messaging for the reduced-fee service, according to an announcement on its web site:

We do not agree with this criticism but this is not the key aspect of the proposal. The core of our proposal is the introduction of a substantially lower filing fee for simple cases where no response is filed and there is no need for Panellists to produce a detailed decision.

ADR.EU has therefore decided to remodel our proposal to concentrate on this core idea.

But it’s not a proposal; the new pricing scheme will go into effect on March 15. Compared to the old proposal, there will be no “check box” decision forms, but CAC anticipates “UDRP decisions in simple cases where no response is filed will be quite short and will just outline reasons for the decision.” Panelists will make only 250 EUR per decision, compared with 850 EUR for a regular decision.

If filers start to use CAC’s discounted offering, expect WIPO and National Arbitration Forum to follow. WIPO has already announced plans for a lower cost service.

(Hat tip Jim Davies)

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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21:59
GoDaddy Price Increase Announced for .Com & .Net Domain Registrations
» ‎ Elliot's Blog
I just received an email from GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain registrar, and the email announced a price increase for .com and .net domain registrations. As of July 1, 2010, the price of .com domain names will increase 7%, while the price of .net domain names will increase by 10%. The email cited VeriSign’s price increase as the reason.

I am sure that other registrars will send similar emails to their customers, so keep this in mind if you want to renew and/or extend the length of your domain registrations prior to the price increase.

A 7% increase may not seem like a lot of money, but if you have a portfolio of 1,000 names at Godaddy and pay the full price of $10.69, a 7% increase means you will pay $11.44 per name, an increase of $750 for your entire portfolio.

Here’s the email that was just sent by Godaddy:

===

On July 1, 2010, VeriSign®, the registry for .COM and .NET, will increase prices – .COM will go up 7%, and .NET by 10%.

The increase will be passed to registrars like Go Daddy and then, unfortunately, to consumers like you.

As of July 1, we will be forced to raise registration and renewal* prices for these two popular top-level domains.

If you wish to avoid this price increase, you can renew your domain names by June 30 and add another year to your current expiration dates. You have the option to register or renew for multiple years and lock in long-term savings. Of course, should you have any questions, please give us a call at 1-480-505-8821.

Thanks as always for being a Go Daddy customer.
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21:51
The Internet is Interconnection
» ‎ CircleID

There's a scene in the Steven Soderbergh movie, Traffic, where the widow of a drug dealer brings a doll to the Columbian drug kingpin. "The doll is stuffed with cocaine. Big deal, we've been doing that for years," he says dismissively. "No," she answers, "the doll is cocaine." The whole toy is a heat-treated, compression-molded block of cocaine, undetectable to sniffing dogs. The drug lord becomes very interested.

The Internet is like that doll… and not because it's used by some for smuggling drugs! Rather, the Internet is seen as a thing filled with interconnection relationships, when in fact the Internet is interconnection. The relationships make the internetwork. They are more significant than the TCP/IP protocol, the end-to-end design philosophy, the bandwidth, or the routing algorithms, as important as all those things are. Kill interconnection, and a network disappears from the Internet. Kill the culture of interconnection, and the Internet dies. Another analogy is Arthur Koestler's concept of a holon—something that is both a whole and a part of the whole. (Thanks to Miko Matsumura for the pointer at a recent retreat.)

The value of interconnection is often missed, because it's the space between networks. It's much easier to grasp the impacts of those individual networks on their customers. Every piece of the Internet, however, must interconnect to serve its users, which means its internal policies and practices are never the whole story. Interconnection is generally reciprocal, so if you want to benefit from a link with a network, you take on some obligations in return. The details get complicated, and network interconnection is constantly evolving, but that's the core magic.

Today, John Markoff published a New York Times article on how Internet interconnection may be changing. (The short version is that private peering is short-circuiting the major backbones, with unpredictable consequences.) Markoff deserves credit for giving a serious summary of academic network science research that bears on Internet structure. You usually don't see these concepts in the popular press. It matters whether or not the Internet is a scale-free network, however, as esoteric as that may sound. As Markoff notes, even the experts can't agree on what the Internet looks like today, raising serious questions about its performance going forward. They just know that it's changing. One reason is the lack of public traffic data on Internet-connected networks, which KC Claffy of CAIDA has been warning about for years.

I wrote three law review articles about interconnection over the past three years. I didn't realize it, but they form a trilogy. Only Connect argues that interconnection, not non-discrimination, should be the central focus of telecommunications policy today. The Centripetal Network delves into the network science that Markoff's article summarizes, raising the concern that the Internet's interconnectivity may not be as robust as it seems. And in Off the Hook, coming out shortly, I develop a detailed legal theory for an interconnection-based policy regime under the Communications Act.

Interconnection is poised to become even more important, because it's not just a factor at the network layer. Internet applications and content are increasingly becoming interconnected, moving toward the syndication model of business I proposed a decade ago. Twitter interconnects with Google for real-time search, while YouTube interconnects with blogs for content distribution. Everyone's a platform, and virtually everyone is both a consumer and a producer of external information. I'm firmly convinced that the dynamics of interconnection will keep policy-makers and business executives busy for years to come. All the more reason to make it a focal point now.
Written by Kevin Werbach, Professor at the Wharton School and Organizer of the Supernova Conference
Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Access Providers, Broadband, Internet Governance, Policy & Regulation, Web

21:46
Draft Delegation Rate Scenarios for New gTLDs
» ‎ ICANN Announcements

3 March 2010

21:43
Google Beats Facebook in Popularity Because it Supports More Languages (For Now)
» ‎ CircleID

John Yunker co-founder of Byte Level Research and author of The Web Globalization Report Card writes: "The big story this year is that Facebook and Google finished in a numerical tie. But because Google supports more languages (for now), it edged out as the winner. ... Even as we look across all 225 web sites, the number of languages continues to increase. Although the rate of language growth slowed over the past two years—due in large part to the global recession—growth continues. This year, the average number of languages increased to 22, up from 20 languages in 2008."
Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Multilinguism, Web

21:41
New podcast helps you join the conversation
» ‎ ICANN blog

Imagine footmen playing a royal brass fanfare as we announce: ICANN now produces its first audio podcast series for you!

When you join the ICANN community, you quickly discover that folks here have considered and debated certain issues for years. You want to participate, but when you try to educate yourself on a topic, you look on icann.org and find (seemingly) one thousand documents, each a hundred pages long. How do you begin to understand the issue?

From now on, the answer just might be ICANN Start. We produced this new audio podcast especially for listeners who are new to ICANN or new to a specific issue.

Each episode of ICANN Start focuses on one subject, and in an interview with a subject matter expert, answers five basic questions: What is it? Why does it matter? Who does it affect? Who’s going to fix it? How can I participate? (Sometimes the five questions vary, but the show is always one issue / five questions.)

No episode will run more than 20 minutes. In many cases, you can grasp the basics of a topic within the space of a coffee break – and without reading.

The podcast launched publicly last week, with four episodes. Tune in if you’d like a basic explanation of these topics: internationalized registration data; wildcarding and synthesized DNS responses; Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy; and country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs).

We’ll post a new episode on the first of each month. Find the podcast on the ICANN web site by clicking the home page’s E-Learning tab; or, you can surf directly to a list of episodes. Many of Apple’s global iTunes stores carry the show; to check for it, in the podcast section of iTunes search for “ICANN Start.”

Finally, as the host of the show, I want to learn from you. What ICANN topic do you wish someone would explain? Send your response to start@icann.org, and we’ll do our best to produce a relevant, helpful show for you. Get in on the beginning of this new effort and let us know how to improve it!

A well-informed opinion is a persuasive opinion. From now on when you wonder, “How can I wrap my mind around this issue?”, think, “ICANN Start.”

21:36
How Domain Name Monetization is Changing
» ‎ Domain Name Wire
A look at where we’re headed for domain monetization.

It’s no secret that the traditional form of domain name monetization — PPC parking — has seen a decline over the past three years. Nonetheless, this form of monetization is still the best option for most domain names. Certain segments of domain names can do better through other monetization channels, however.

There are basically two different efforts going on in the evolution of domain monetization: traffic building and alternative monetization.

Traffic building involves generating traffic to domain names that receive little natural traffic. WhyPark and DevHub are good examples. These services create content on your domains with the hope of getting search engine traffic. Another example is SmartName, which recently released a content system and also has a “shops” system that populates products onto domains. While all of these may generate some traffic to web sites, they mostly still rely on pay-per-click for monetization. (DevHub has a network of CPM, CPA, and PPC advertisers).

Although these traffic building outfits are interesting, I’m more excited about recent developments in monetization beyond PPC. These solutions typically work best for domains that already have traffic, but aren’t optimized using PPC.

Cost-per-action, or the affiliate model, is certainly an opportunity. PPX is one company trying to marry the affiliate marketing world with domain name traffic.

But a bit further outside the box you’ll find a couple companies to really keep an eye on. I recently wrote a review of Octane360, which sells directory listings and leads on geo-targeted web sites. These fixed-price, monthly listings can far outpace potential PPC revenue and don’t rely on the Google-Yahoo duopoly. The typical domain owner will get about $5 per directory listing sold on his/her site, and most listings automatically renew each month. Two months of one listing covers the annual registration fee.

Case-in-point: My StlDaycare.com domain name made only a couple bucks a year parked. Octane has sold three listings on it, which will generate about $200 a year in revenue. That’s about 100 times what I was making from parking. Do that at scale and it’s a game changer.

Another interesting player is RootOrange. They are taking category-killer generics and splitting the traffic amongst cities, effectively leasing local rights to the domain to a related company in each city. They’re early in the game, and I’m not sure how it will work out. But strategies like this are innovative and promising.

One idea I’ve been kicking around is using domain traffic to capture opt-in email addresses. This doesn’t result in immediate monetization, but instead enables long term, recurring revenue opportunities.

I suspect that, even in five years’ time, pay-per-click parking will remain the top monetization method for domain names. But what happens with alternative monetization techniques will be extremely important to the industry.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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21:08
Enabling all the Visas of identity
» ‎ Infrablog

The Open Identity Exchange was launched this morning at the RSA conference in San Francisco. It is a significant step for federated identity as it will enable US government web sites such as the NIH to embrace open identity standards and roll out open identity services to US citizens. For example, the National Institute of Health can now move out of pilot phase and support accredited OpenID providers.

So, what is the Open Identity Exchange (OIX)? The OIX aims at enabling specialized trust frameworks or certification programs within a vertical community (e.g. US government, health care, financial services). Certification requirements for shared identity can be diverse and complex depending on the level of assurance required. Simply said, when it comes to trust, one size does not fit all.

You can think of a trust framework as the policy sibling of technical standards for identity. Identity policies must be set to deal with privacy, security, and liability. Once policies have been defined, certification can emerge as the foundation for trust between all parties exchanging information. However, the type of policy needed greatly depends on the sensitivity of this information, the security risks, and many other factors, including geo-political sensitivities. Indeed, the level of trust assurance required to protect access to the energy grid, electronic health care records or social web pages is clearly not the same.

The open approach that the OIX take is attractive. The OIX does not try to set the policy rules. Instead, it creates a common framework, a shared approach that will enable different communities to create their own certification rules. It is not an easy problem. But because cyber security and key governmental initiatives depend on high assurance identity management, OIX is an important first step to get there.

21:03
HomeAway Acquires BedAndBreakfast.com & Inns.com for Undisclosed Sum
» ‎ Elliot's Blog
TechCrunch is reporting that HomeAway has acquired BedAndBreakfast.com for an undisclosed sum. HomeAway is a vacation rental company that operates a number of web properties, including VacationRentals.com, VRBO.com, and several other popular websites. Homeaway has close to a half a billion dollars in funding.

BedAndBreakfast.com is a website featuring over 10,000 bed and breakfast properties found throughout the world. The website provides reservation services and reviews of its listed bed and breakfasts. According to Compete, the website receives over 370,000 unique visitors per month.

In addition to the BedAndBreakfast.com property, I spoke with a representative at BedAndBreakfast.com who confirmed that HomeAway also acquired Inns.com as part of the deal. Inns.com is similar to BedAndBreakfast.com, but it caters to clients looking for inns rather than bed and breakfasts. According to Compete, Inns.com receives somewhere around 10,000 unique visitors per month.

Both companies are based in Austin, Texas.
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20:50
Edelman: Domainers Cause Harm, Add Little Value
» ‎ Domain Name Wire
Author of typosquatting report says domainers add little value, and questions the right to register large numbers of domain names.

Cyber intelligence company Cyveillance has interviewed Benjamin Edelman, one of the authors of a recent report on typosquatting, and he has this to say about domainers: they cause harm and add little genuine value.

It should be pointed out that Edelman is co-counsel in a lawsuit against Google and several other industry players over typosquatting.

In the interview, Edelman states that he doesn’t see “much genuine value coming from the domaining business.”

Yes, some users guess domain names, and domainers can cause results to be shown to users who might otherwise receive error messages. But most web browsers already show results that are at least as useful as domainers’ placeholders – often better, with genuine organic results rather than merely advertisements.

This seems strange; as if he’s saying the ISPs and web browser manufacturers should be able to monetize non-existent domains, instead of domainers.

As for domainers that own generic domain names?

Meanwhile, domainers cause some important harms: For one, as detailed in my article, domainers deplete advertisers’ budgets. Domainers also make it more costly for entrepreneurs to obtain the domains required to run actual substantive businesses: A domain might truly be unclaimed, in the sense that no one has ever used it for anything interesting, but a domainer would nonetheless be able to withhold that domain from a would-be user until they agree on a price.

But isn’t that like real property?

Domainers will vigorously defend their right to advance-register large numbers of domains, as if this is some kind of moral entitlement. I’m not so sure. In many areas, landowners are (and, historically, have been) required to improve their property lest they be a blight or eyesore to others. The analogy here is less direct: Which domains are “near” an unimproved domainer domain? But certainly unimproved domains harm others, by impeding what could be direct navigations, and by driving up costs to others.

Cyveillance asked Edelman about certain web sites blocking Edelman’s research computers from gathering information. Edelman doesn’t directly respond to the question. As I pointed out in my earlier story on his report, this is likely the result of anti-bot systems rather than some sort of proactive blocking of his research.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:
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20:02
DON’T SUE ME FOR SELLING THEM CHEAP. KEYWORD GENERIC LEGAL DOMAINS!
» ‎ SUCCESSCLICK.COM

Hi Gang,

I’m still cleaning out my niches, and these are all the domains left in my LEGAL category.

Just to be a guy showing confidence in his select maturing domains, and not trying to “gouge” any new domain investors who want to build their portfolio with some decent domains for low dollar investments, I’m doing a loss-leader Blog article listing of my domains, bringing in readers to tell them:

“You want these, and in a few weeks, if you subscribe to my Domain Sales email newsletter to be implemented soon, you’re going to see great domains for less than $300, most for $99 or less.” So stay tuned!

Here’s the legal bunch… check out the geo’s on these!

BIG HOWDEE DOO FOR ALL DOMAINERS — ALL DOMAINS GET DISCOUNT OF $100 OFF THE PRINTED PRICE — that means subtract $100 off each domain price and that’s’ the BIN.

NOTE: THESE DOMAINS PRICES ARE ONLY GOOD UNTIL MARCH 15, 2010.

DomainIndustryAttorney.com – $399
DomainLawServices.com – $299
DomainIndustryAttorneys.com – $299
DomainIndustryLawyer.com – $199 (price lowered $800 on 3/5/2010 to see if Ari or Berryhill are watching!)
DomainIndustryLawyers.com – $299
LasVegasDivorce.org – $299
WyomingLaw.org – $299

CriminalLawAttorney.org – $199 (real price – $99 with the $100 discount)
ATTORNEYPENNSYLVANIA.COM – $599
ATTORNEYINFORMATION.NET – $199
LOSANGELESATTORNEY.ORG – $299
AUTOACCIDENTATTORNEY.ORG – $299 – SOLD
JUDGEMENTCOLLECTOR.COM – $299
TAXLAWPARTNERS.COM – $199 – SOLD
USLAWPARTNERS.COM – $199
PERSONALINJURYASSOCIATES.COM – $299 (price lowered $100 more 3/5/2010)
PROBATEGROUP.COM – $299
PROBATELITIGATORS.COM – $199
PROBATELITIGATOR.COM – $199
AMERICANTAXLAWYER.COM – $199
ESTATELITIGATORS.COM – $199
ESTATELITIGATOR.COM – $199
TAXLAWADVISORS.COM – $199
TAXLAWADVISOR.COM – $199
LAGUNALAWOFFICE.COM – $199
NEWJERSEYATTORNEY.ORG – $199 – SOLD

REMEMBER — see a domain you like? It’s $100 off each printed price.

NOTE: AND FOR THE BIG BOYS AND SMARTEST INVESTORS, HERE IS THE BULK SALE DEAL THAT WILL MAKE YOU DROOL : If you buy before anyone jumps on either of these domains, then ALL THE DOMAINS ABOVE IN BULK – YES, ALL THE DOMAINS (26) CAN BE BOUGHT AT BULK FOR ONLY (UPDATED 3/5/2010) $2,000. (TOTAL CHERRY PICK PRICE WOULD BE $6, 100+).

BULK PRICE gives you savings of $5,500. Some of these domains get CPC, but all are killer brands, especially the geos.(I’ll give this offer for only 48 hours after post):

Act fast – email me at successclick [at] g m a i l . c o m

This prices are only good until March 10, 2010

As usual, there are more than two domains that have great SE relevant page counts, and some have decent PPC. If you have to ask, don’t buy it. The price is so low because I don’t want to work at getting data…

Have fun!

19:23
New Tool Lets You Scan Web Pages for Available Domain Names
» ‎ Domain Name Wire
URL2Domain scans text and looks for corresponding domain names available for registration.

Whenever I hear or read a new term I haven’t heard of, I add it to a list of possible domain names to register. A new tool call URL2Domain now makes that process easy: it will scan entire web pages to find words that aren’t registered in .com.

All you do is copy the URL you want scanned, paste it into the box at URL2Domain.com, and it starts scanning. It shows you the progress as it scans each word on the page and sees if the corresponding .com domain name is available.

Because basically every one word domain name is taken in .com, don’t expect to get a lot of hits. So far I’ve found mostly typos in articles coming up as available domain names. URL2Domain will find more available domain names if you use it to scan web sites that have never terms, such as slang dictionaries and scientific research.

One improvement already in the works that will increase the hit rate is the ability to scan against multiple TLDs in addition to .com. Although most words are taken in .com, you might find some good ones in .net, .org, or even country code domains.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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15:48
Nominet holds event on Securing the domain name system
» ‎ DomainNews

Nominet,the national registry for .uk domain names,will hold an event on Securing the domain name system.
10:18
Registration for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Milan opened
» ‎ DomainNews

Registration for the second T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference for 2010 opened recently.
10:16
DOMAINfest Europe will be held in Prague
» ‎ DomainNews

Oversee.net recently announced that the second DOMAINfest conference for 2010 will be hold in Prague from October 6-7th.
10:12
Metal.com at $165,000 leads Sedo's weekly sales list
» ‎ DomainNews

Metal.com topped Sedo's weekly sales chart at $165,000.
10:10
DENIC Enabled Registration of DNSSEC Key Material
» ‎ DomainNews

The “DNSSEC Testbed for Germany” entered the decisive phase: From 2 March 2010 DENIC gives also second level domains under .de the opportunity to participate in the DNSSEC testbed and to record the related key material.

8:30
DOMAINfest Announces European Show
» ‎ Domain Name Wire
Second DOMAINfest conference to take place in Prague.

We now have the details about the second DOMAINfest conference for 2010, something the company foreshadowed back in July.

Oversee.net announced today that it will hold the second conference in Prague, Czech Republic. It will be a two day event, October 6 and 7, 2010 at Hotel Intercontinental. Conference details will be released in June. Registration is not yet open, but hotel reservations are available for 159 EUR per night.

A European conference is a natural progression for Oversee, which recently expanded into Europe with a new office.

The Fall is shaping up to be a busy season for domain conferences, although they will be spread geographically. In addition to the DOMAINfest conference, TRAFFIC will hold events in October (South Beach) and November (Hong Kong). Chef Patrick is organizing a domain name cruise in October as well.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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8:14
DOMAINfest Europe to be held in Prague on October 6/7
» ‎ Domain Name News
After organizing the largest event for the Domain Industry with their recent DomainFEST Global in Santa Monica, Oversee.net’s DomainSponsor unit has now announced the dates and location for their European event. DOMAINfest Europe will be held from October 6-7th in Prague in the Czech Republic at the InterContinental Hotel. The addition of the European event clearly underlines the company’s commitment of establishing a presence in Europe after opening an office in Frankfurt, Germany late last year. The event will also feature a live domain auction. Agenda and speaker details will be announced in June.

With this event the domain industry will be even busier in September/October than with DomainFest and TRAFFIC in January 2010:
- Sept 2-3: Domainvermarkter Forum in Munich, Germany
- Sept 23-24: DomainConvergence in Montreal, Canada
- Oct 6-7: DOMAINfest Europe, Prague, Czech Republic
- Oct 11-15: DNCruise, Miami, Key West, Cozumel
- Oct 17-20: Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C., Miami South Beach, Florida
For a full list of events of relevance to the domain industry, visit the Domain Name Industry Event Calendar, DNCalendar.com. Please let us know if we’re missing an event.
(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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WE BUY DOMAINS. We are interested in acquiring your premium domains – find out more.

7:18
Oversee Announces DomainFest Prague
» ‎ Elliot's Blog
DomainFest Global is set become a fully “global” conference. For a couple of weeks now, I have heard rumors that Oversee was thinking about – or planning to have a DomainFest conference in Prague, Czech Republic, and this information has just been confirmed by the company. DomainFest will be held in Prague for two days, from October 6 – 7, 2010 at the Intercontinental Hotel.

I have been planning to attend the Traffic conferences in Vancouver in June and Hong Kong in November, and I may add this one to the list. Prague is a city that I’ve wanted to visit for quite some time, and now I should be able to make a “business case” to attend.

Full details can be read in the Oversee press release:

DomainSponsor®, the domain monetization business unit of Oversee.net® and organizer of the DOMAINfest® series of conferences, said today that it will expand the highly regarded franchise into Europe with a conference in Prague, Czech Republic.

The two-day event will be held Wednesday and Thursday, October 6 and 7, 2010 at the landmark Hotel Intercontinental located in the heart of one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. Building on the success of last month’s event in Santa Monica, California, the October meeting will continue DOMAINfest’s focus on increasing the value of Internet real estate and will offer a rich setting for extensive networking involving topics relevant not only to domain investors from Europe, but also from around the world.

Subject-matter experts will be invited to facilitate the networking sessions on Wednesday, October 6th. The first day will also include a Moniker® Premium Domain Name Auction powered by SnapNames LiveTM technology. Day 2 will be focused on social activities in and around Prague designed to provide the kind of shared experiences that can contribute to the building of long-term relationships between DOMAINfest Europe attendees. Conference details, including the agenda and speakers, will be released in June, 2010.

“DOMAINfest Europe is an excellent opportunity for European publishers, online marketers, and domain-related service providers to meet and discuss ways to increase the value of domain names, which we like to refer to as Internet real estate, “ said Peter Celeste, Senior Vice President of Oversee.net and General Manger, Monetization Services. “The DomainSponsor team looks forward to becoming more engaged with the European domain investor community, and this forum is the perfect venue to exchange ideas and build relationships. As with all DOMAINfest events, we will be offering affordable registration rates to encourage maximum participation from a wide range of talented professionals from both inside and outside our industry.”

In January, 2010, DomainSponsor hosted a highly successful DOMAINfest Global® conference in Santa Monica, California that attracted more than 600 professionals from a variety of internet-related industries. The conference included a variety of sessions over a three day period, including a keynote fireside chat with Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com. This recent DOMAINfest conference also featured a first-ever PITCHfest contest, structured networking sessions, and moderated general sessions with experts from the world of investment, advertising, and marketing. Videos of each session, including the keynote fireside chat, can be viewed at http://www.domainfest.com.

In November 2009, DomainSponsor announced the establishment of its European head office in Frankfurt, Germany with Joerg Schnermann as General Manager.
Related posts:
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7:10
DOMAINfest Europe Networking Event In October
» ‎ ChefPatrick.com

The highly anticipated second DOMAINfest show has been announced. Actually I have not received any official word on this, I’m going off their DOMAINfest.com website. The event will be held at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic. It begins October 6th, 2010 and end October 7th. Preliminary Agenda Wednesday October 6, 2010 * Breakfast and morning [...]

7:10
Creditor Can Execute Against Domain Name Where Registry is Located: Office Depot v. Zuccarini
» ‎ CircleID

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling in Office Depot v. Zuccarini [Scribd link], agreeing that a creditor may levy against a domain name in the jurisdiction where the domain name registry is located. The decision is significant for two reasons. First, it affirms (or reaffirms) that domain names are property subject to the claims of creditors. Second, it allows creditors to proceed against domain names where the registry is located, thus allowing creditors to proceed against domain names in one proceeding and more importantly levy against domain names located abroad (where the registry is located in the United States). Overall, this makes getting at a domain name much easier for creditors.

Background: Office Depot originally obtained a judgment against frequent cybersquatting defendant John Zuccarini. Office Depot then assigned the judgment to DS Holdings. Office Depot obtained the judgment in 2000 and it's surprising that 10 years later the judgment is finally being enforced against something. Although Zuccarini is proceeding pro se, it seems like he was or became well versed in putting up roadblocks and delaying resolution of the litigation.

DS went after 190 .com domain names that were registered in Zuccarini's name. DS originally tried unsuccessfully to have the domain names transferred directly to it. (This was the technique successfully used by the plaintiff in Bosh v. Zavala.) Later, DS sought to have a receiver appointed over the domain names. The district court granted DS's request to have the receiver appointed, and Zuccarini appealed. Zuccarini's appeal focused on whether it was proper to appoint the receiver in the Northern District of California, since the domain names were not necessarily "located" there.

The court's ruling: The court runs through basic principles of in rem jurisdiction and what rules apply. The court then looks to federal rules to determine where the receiver should be appointed in this case. Finding no applicable federal rule, the court looks to California law. California law provides that a writ of execution may be issued "in the county where the levy is to be made." With this in the background, the two questions presented by the court are: (1) "are domain names property that is subject to execution?" and (2) "if so, where are the domain names located for purposes of execution?"

With respect to the first question, the court cites to Kremen v. Cohen, and easily concludes that (under California law) "domain names are intangible property subject to a writ of execution." Kremen undermined Network Solutions, Inc. v. Umbro Int'l, Inc., 259 Va. 759, 770 (Va. 2000), a Virginia case widely cited for the proposition that creditors cannot get at domain names because domain names are contract rights rather then property. To the extent Kremen did not refute Umbro, this decision definitely provides the necessary ammunition to creditors. (Again, collection is state-specific, and apart from the analysis of the nature of domain names, the outcome in these cases turns on the statute in question, which vary from state to state. That said, I think given the robust marketplace in domain names, Umbro's conception of the domain name as a personal services agreement seems outdated, and most courts will easily recognize this.)

With respect to the second question, the court acknowledges that "attaching a situs to intangible property is ... a legal fiction," and the determination must be made in a "context-specific" manner. Fairness was relevant to the court's determination of the appropriate situs, and the court was understandably not receptive to Zuccarini's policy arguments that allowing a court to issue an order directed to the registry would mean that every .com and .net domain name could be levied through courts in the Northern District of California. The court also looked to the ACPA, which provides for in rem jurisdiction over certain cases where the "registrar, registry, or other domain name authority" is located. Although this was not an ACPA case, the court found the structure set up by the statute persuasive and that the writ was appropriately issued from Northern District of California since VeriSign (the registry for .com domains) is located there.

My reaction: The decision clears up two things. Although post Kremen v. Cohen there shouldn't have been much dispute that domain names are property which are subject to the claims of creditors, the case clears up any lingering doubt that may have existed. (Kremen and this case applied California law, but the result shouldn't vary much across other states.) Second, the decision makes clear that a court which has jurisdiction over the registry can issue an order allowing the creditor to get at the domain names. The case also implicitly affirms that getting a receiver appointed to sell the domain names is the appropriate route for the creditor. Getting the name transferred to the creditor is not a remedy allowed under California law (Palacio Del Mar Homeowners Ass'n, Inc. v. McMahon). Additionally, a transfer of domain names from a cybersquatter to a judgment creditor raises some issues around potential infringement of third party rights through sales or other exploitation of the domain names. (See this post on Bosh v. Zavala for some discussion of those issues.) The method ultimately used by DS in this case (a receiver) avoids all of these issues, or at least shifts them over to the receiver rather than the creditor.

Finally, as mentioned above, this ruling makes clear that regardless of whether a domain name is registered through a foreign registrar, a court having jurisdiction over the registry can issue an order directing transfer of the domain names to a receiver. With respect to .com and .net domain names, this means that creditors can try to get at these domain names through proceeding in the Northern District of California (as the court notes, VeriSign is the registry for .com and .net domain names and is headquartered in Mountain View). While the ACPA allows plaintiffs to file in rem suits where the registry is located, it's nice (for creditors) to have a similar ruling in the post-judgment context, and one from the Ninth Circuit as well.

Will this cause a rush of similar claims to be filed in the Northern District of California? It's tough to say, but even post Kremen, it does not seem like there's been a ton of post-judgment collections activity with respect to domain names. From a practitioner's standpoint, it's certainly nice to have this rule on the books.

An odd footnote: Zuccarini is a colorful character whose internet exploits have gotten him in trouble with the law. He was arrested in 2003. (Here's a post at CircleID rounding up reactions to his arrest.) According to his Wikipedia entry which contains a link to a Bureau of Prisons search, he was released in 2005.
Written by Venkat Balasubramani, Tech-Internet Lawyer at Focal PLLC
Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Domain Names, Domain Registries, ICANN, Law, Top-Level Domains

4:48
LuxuryNames.com Holding A Quick Two Day Auction
» ‎ ChefPatrick.com

LuxuryNames.com is holding another auction! In fact, it started earlier today. It opened up today, March 2nd, and will end on Thursday, March 4th at 3:15 EST. The auction itself is being held at SnapNames.com. These domain names stood out for me as I browsed the list: BallerinaShoes.net Chandeliers.net <– 673,000 EXACT SEARCHES PER MONTH CorrectiveSurgery.com CreditRestoration.org MoscowVacations.com PrivateAirplanes.com RefinanceCalculator.com RentalApartments.net Two things I like [...]

3:30
Registration for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Milan Opens With Some Very Attractive Early Bird Prices
» ‎ Domain Name Journal

Registration for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference coming up in Milan, Italy April 27-29 opened today with some exceptionally low early bird prices offered to those who are quick on the draw. A rate of €499 ($679 at today's exchange rate) will be given to the first 50 people who register for the offer that expires March 15.
2:23
Mike Zapolin's PrescriptionDrugs.com Website Earns Spot in Harvard Business School Contest
» ‎ Domain Name Journal

Michael "Zappy" Zapolin has scored a major honor for his latest category killing domain name development project - PrescriptionDrugs.com. The Harvard Business School has selected the site as a candidate in their "New Ventures" competition. Zappy will present to a panel of judges this month with a spot in the final 3 on the line.

2:05
TRAFFIC Milan Conference And Hotel Registration Now Open
» ‎ ChefPatrick.com

Press Release Atlanta, Georgia USA – March 2, 2010 – Targeted TRAFFIC is gearing up for its first 2010 European show, which will be held on April 27th-29th 2010 in Milan, Italy. Milan is the largest metropolitan area in Italy with an estimated population of 7.4 million. The city has the largest financial and business center [...]

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